100-Day Challenges

I am a passionate social change catalyst with experience working in over ten countries. My work focuses on social justice and criminal justice systems, supporting those closest to the challenge to be increasingly agile, adaptive and resilient in delivering results to keep systems and governments accountable, transparent, fair and effective.

This all began in 2017 when I arrived in Mexico for a 6 month project to accelerate results in the justice sector using RRI’s 100 Day Challenge. Everyone told me I was insane to try and change a system that is riddled with problems in such an unsafe context, that it was an impossible task. 

It has been the greatest privilege of my life to prove them wrong. After 3 years, and a move across the world, we have helped deliver justice to thousands of victims across the country, radically transforming how justice is delivered in more than ten states.

On average, 10 women are killed every day in Mexico. Domestic violence is endemic and 90% impunity exists for these types of cases. The justice system is working with limited resources and a lack of technology, clear objectives and innovative practices. Women who are victims of gender-based violence rarely get the protection, attention or answers they need. 

Our 100-Day Challenge has been used to garner remarkable results throughout Mexico by exponentially increasing the rate and quality of resolutions of high-incidence crime, particularly domestic violence.

We want to reach corners of the country that have been ignored by international funders and support radical change in the way justice is delivered. We plan to achieve this by scaling the 100DC methodology through our training app which would provide interactive content to teach system leaders how to organize a 100DC, and provide front-line teams with support throughout their journey.

Worldwide, 1 in 3 women have experienced physical or sexual violence — mostly by an intimate partner. In Mexico, 66 out of 100 women experience violence every day. In 2019, 3,752 femicides were recorded. In 27 of Mexico's 32 states, the rate of cases without convictions tops 90%. 

Mexico is experiencing a crisis of gender-based violence and femicides. Every day, hundreds of women are assaulted, raped and murdered and then re-victimized by the institutions tasked with protecting them. The figures are horrifying and yet we know little of the real magnitude of the problem. Most countries have seen an increase in cases of domestic violence during the COVID-19 lockdown. In the case of many Mexican states, government responses are scarce and fail to support, protect and end the cycle of violence for victims.

Just three weeks after lockdown measures were announced in Mexico, domestic violence calls to 911 soared by 60%. With this drastic increase in cases, justice institutions are unable to cope. There has never been such a pressing need to increase efficiency and give victims the support they need.

RRI’s 100-Day Challenges inspires those closest to the problem to set unreasonably ambitious goals, and provides them with the coaching and structure necessary to unleash the intense levels of innovation, collaboration, and execution required to achieve them. 

In Mexico, our work has focused on catalyzing change in state-level justice systems and bringing together multidisciplinary teams of justice sector personnel, police officers, NGOs and businesses to work collaboratively to provide justice for victims and to help the system operate more efficiently. 

Since 2017, we have worked with 42 frontline teams in 16 cities in 10 states with remarkable results - including an increase of 1441% in the number of domestic violence cases resolved in Coahuila and a 0% recidivism rate for the 102 defendants under supervision in Zacatecas. Our approach has led to the adoption of new processes and laws and forged bonds that have lasted well beyond the 100 days.

Due to COVID-19, we’ve had to shift our in-person workshops to virtual delivery. With this new type of delivery, we can easily and cost-effectively reach communities who may not be able to access our methodology otherwise. We would like to develop an interactive app to scale this work across Mexico.

100-Day Challenges serve the entire system and the people it serves. From prosecutors, public defenders, and police to victims, perpetrators and their families. We focus on changing the system and on making a difference in the lives of the women and men who come into contact with it. 

The initial impact is on the justice system and its personnel. The 100-Day Challenge brings all of the system stakeholders in the same room working towards a common goal, and innovative practices are rapidly tested and executed to strengthen the system. 

These changes directly impact the local community as a whole. Victims are removed from violent situations quickly, and connected to supportive services that can help them on the road to recovery including refuge, health, and psychological services. Perpetrators not only face repercussions for their crimes, but also receive treatment and counselling to shift the culture and help end the cycle of violence. 

We believe that those closest to the problem are the best equipped to solve it. We empower individuals and institutions to think differently and to try new things. We push the boundaries and catalyze lasting change in the system.

The 100-Day Challenge is all about driving action. Prior to our work, victims of domestic violence rarely saw their abusers face repercussions for their actions - and did not receive appropriate support. By building stronger systems, these victims now have access to supports and services. In the cities where a 100-Day Challenge has taken place, public perception towards the justice system has improved and citizens feel more confident in its capabilities.

Decreasing gender-based violence is a national priority, and we want to ensure that every system has the resiliency and the tools available to them to adequately respond to it.

In 2017, I arrived in Mexico to partner with USAID’s Promoting Justice Project, to pilot the 100DC methodology in two communities to accelerate impact and system change. I began working with two cities and four frontline teams - and inspired by their success, an additional 14 cities have joined the movement across the country. 42 teams and thousands of cases later, we have proven the method works.

A typical 100DC involves four in-person workshops for each city. With COVID-19 we have not been able to travel or have large gatherings - so we have had to rapidly shift to a virtual model. With this model, we realized that we could have a greater impact across the country.

Scaling 100DCs has always been our goal, and with the virtualization of our work, this ambition has become more of a potential reality. We began to think of ways we could do this outside of webinars - and came up with the idea of an app. This app would provide interactive content to teach leaders across Mexico how to organize a 100DC, and provide front-line teams with support throughout their journey - including access to proven best practices and relevant innovations tested elsewhere.

I have always been a feminist, and the belief that women should have equal opportunity and the right to live peaceful and productive lives has motivated me throughout my career. My work in Mexico and the endemic nature of violence against women in every community across every socio-economic section of society, has increased and solidified my commitment to catalyze change in this context. 

Since founding this project I have slowly been able to hire a team of Mexican men and women as committed to this issue and its solution as me. They motivate me every day. But the hope that drives me to continue to grow this work is the change I see in the front-line teams of police, judges, psychologists and so many more, that we support. 

By the end of their 100-Day Challenges, they have often tripled their case resolution rate. They understand the power they have to change the justice situation in their communities. They have been infected with the hope I feel - that there will be a day where women will be able to feel safer inside and outside their homes.

I hold a MSc in Gender and Development, speak five languages, and have years of experience facilitating difficult workshops for social change in over 10 countries, including at the UN headquarters. However, what makes me uniquely positioned for this role is that I am deeply committed to see justice delivered for women. 

My greatest ability in life is to connect with others, and inspire them to believe that change is possible. From the State Attorney General to the police woman patrolling the streets of Juárez every day, I believe in their power to collaborate and innovate. 

Two and a half years ago, and six months into the project, the Mexican team I was working with, sat me down and told me it was time to move across the world and truly lead this. We had already supported five cities to achieve amazing results, but there were hundreds more cities asking for help, who wanted to be part of this new ‘movement’. I doubted whether I was the right person. 

But I have learned through this work that what makes me a good leader, is that I understand this is not about me. My role is to spread the message, share my skills and knowledge, empower and uplift the voices all around me, and inspire them to take action. I have successfully created a network of people who share my passion and are willing to fight for it. I am the catalyst, but they are the change.

Working with the Criminal Justice System in itself is the adversity that I overcome every day. It is a system that at both the international, national and local level inspires very little belief that things can improve, that security and justice will one day prevail in Mexico. Corruption and organized crime are realities that we must continually face, and slowly chip away at; I accept that we may often fail, but that any success (and we have had many) brings hope.

There are many examples of difficult challenges I have experienced whilst implementing this work: from a shooting in Chihuahua, or the policemen who whilst participating in the 100-Day Challenges were killed, or the sexual harrassment I have experienced whilst often being the only woman at the table in a room full of powerful male leaders. All those have strengthened my sense of urgency and solidified my commitment because despite the political nature of the work, the male-dominate leadership we work with, I have seen the tangible results our work produces. 

The people that we work with show us time and time again, that the achievement of short-term results prepare the ground for long-term system change.

This year, an unprecedented number of women marched on International Women’s Day in Mexico. The day after, we went on strike to protest the utter failure to respond to the thousands of women murdered every year. 

I brought together our partners and team to open up about what they had learned and experienced. Everyone had a seat at the table, including secretaries, female cleaning staff, and male technical leaders. I asked them to share one reflection of what the strike had meant to them. 

Tears ran down many faces, as for the first time we listened to women’s voices who are rarely heard - and are waking up to what equality might look like for them. The men reflected on the lessons they were uncovering on their own masculinity, and its consequences.

Since that day I have seen a real change in how our male colleagues take into account the voices of women we work with. Their approach to our work in gender violence has shifted. I am proud to have modeled that behaviour. We must always have the humility to acknowledge what we can do better, and to listen to those who might be the key to our improvement.

100-Day Challenges are structured journeys for frontline teams and leaders that are designed to inspire and enable intense collaboration, continuous innovation, and fast and disciplined execution. Teams start this journey by setting unreasonable but believable 100-Day Goals and developing innovative plans to achieve these. 

To set the stage for the journey, leaders shape and present a challenge to the team, and they create a “safe space” for the team to experiment and learn. The team will include system operators, activists and local businessmen. Judges, policemen and women, prosecutors, public defenders and activists have never sat at the same table before, never had to work together towards a common goal that they collectively "own". In a country and system as hierarchical as this, they have never been given the freedom or the responsibility to change how the system and its processes operate.

This choreography has fostered an innumerable number of innovations across the country: from how 911 assess risk to the victim's life, masculinity workshops for perpetrators, changes in how hearings are scheduled, litigation techniques and with COVID, new virtual ways to operate the system. All ideated and executed by the frontline teams themselves. 

The premise of 100 Day Challenges is that collaborative and empowering relationships, among different professional groups as well as between the public, frontline workers and managers, are central to successful and ongoing transformation. Such relationships are forged when individuals and teams work together towards inspiring and ambitious goals, are supported to try new approaches, and have the opportunity to share these experiences. Over time, individuals develop enhanced capabilities to work in collaborative and innovative ways, and develop increased motivation and inspiration to continue to do so.Through the activities undertaken and the new approaches they test and refine, processes change. These new processes contribute to changes in policies and procedures, shared behaviours and relationships, and result in better justice outcomes. As ‘results’ become apparent, the collective belief in collaborative and innovative working is reinforced, these approaches to system transformation become increasingly sustained and scaled at a local level.

People closest to the action are given the opportunity to experiment and drive change. Empowering the front line brings insights into the issues/challenges involved in achieving long-term strategic ambitions, and  creates momentum and energy for change from the bottom-up. Teams are supported to take on new behaviours that enable greater collaboration and joint problem–solving.

Within each 100 Day Challenge are a series of carefully choreographed activities that create and sustain an environment that enables frontline teams to engage in goal-focused collaborative action and learning through experimentation and reflection. RRI coaches enable this by creating a ‘safe space’ in which leaders experiment with new ways of managing and leading, and front line teams feel empowered to do things differently. The elements of an enabling environment are:

1. “Permissioning" i.e. being empowered to innovate

2. Consensus on the challenge and unreasonable goals

3. A team appropriate for the task

4. Teams are supported throughout the process

5. Rapid, iterative testing

6. Collaborative working

The establishment and refinement of these elements throughout a cycle (or cycles) of 100 Day Challenges facilitates the likelihood that teams will achieve sustainable change across a local system.

The above map is a sample of the tangible results achieved by the teams we have worked with in Mexico. 7,544 cases have so far been resolved using the 100 Day Challenge methodology. But systems sustain a much higher performance level long after the methodology has ended so the number is likely to be at least 3 times that. 

Each case can have up to 10 defendants. So the number of cases resolved does not illustrate the number of people affected by the work. In domestic violence cases, there are often children involved who are also victims and are affected by their mother's case being resolved. From ensuring that perpetrators pay child support, to ensuring that they go through masculinity workshops and therapy. This work can transform the lives of whole families. 

The State Attorney General of Sonora recently states that 4,000 people had been affected by their first 100 Day Challenge in Hermosillo. That was one of the 42 teams we have worked with, so it is possible that so far 168,000 people have been affected. 

In one year, we would like to have worked in five new states (we have so far worked in ten) and in five years, we would like to have supported at least 25 of the 32 Mexican states. Thousands of justice workers and millions of victims and perpetrators will by then have been supported to achieve better justice outcomes.

1. Increase the number of states achieving transformative results through 100 Day Challenges with from 10 to 15 (within next year) and 25 (next five years)- each of these local systems impacts millions of citizens. These states will include those traditionally left behind by international funders.
2. Foster a Joint Learning Network for Justice Innovation-  including peer to peer learning (avoiding the need for external experts and consultants) and an innovation library open to all justice workers.
3. Make 100 Day Challenges the "new normal" - justice systems we have worked with use 100 Day Challenges to foster continuous improvement and increased quality and quantity of justice outcomes.
4. Expand to two more Latin American countries - As well as Mexico, we have already successful delivered two 100DCs in Dominican Republic (resulting in 1000% increase in domestic violence cases being resolved in Santo Domingo) and would like to replicate this success in two more countries with struggling justice systems and poor government legitimacy.
5. Launch a Rapid Results training app which allows leaders to learn to design and implement their own 100DCs and supports frontline teams on their justice journey.

1. COVID-19 means we can't deliver our in-person events, a cornerstone of the methodology. It is also posing unmeasurable issues for the delivery of justice services in resource-constrained setting across the country. 
2. Funder-imposed geographic limitations - We can currently only support states chosen by our current funder USAID. These are often northern states closer to the US-Mexico border. We would like to have a more open and inclusive selection process to include states in the south of Mexico and smaller cities with high crime incidence rates with limited resources.
3. Limited capacity - we currently have many states and cities asking us for help, wanting to implement the methodology. Our growth in 3 years has already been fast but we need help to continue to scale our support to as many local systems as possible. I have grown our team from one to six in a year and a half but we need new ways to offer our services. 

1. COVID-19 - we have already rapidly switched to virtual delivery very successfully, supporting 20 teams as they continued their 100DC journey during the pandemic. This will however continue to be a challenge and we are training our team to continue to develop their online facilitation skills and exploring platforms to make workshops as interactive, innovative and engaging as possible. We have also provided local systems with training on how to use zoom, menti and other tools to conduct virtual hearings and other innovative alternative ways to deliver justice services during this challenging and uncertain time.

2.Funder-imposed geographic limitations -  we are exploring ways to make our methodology as cost effective as possible to deliver, so that the government can directly engage us to support them. Our idea of a DIY training app would allow us to reach these geographic areas free of cost to them. The app would also include an innovation library with tried and tested best practices and 'home-grown' innovations invented by those that face similar challenges. These would have step-by-step implementation instructions and videos that would be free to all justice workers across the country.

3. Limited capacity - It is becoming urgent to build local capacity to deliver 100DCs without the need for intensive support from my team and I. We already have training content that is ready to be loaded into the app and the app would allow us to support a much bigger number of cities and states. 

The Elevate Prize would allow us to overcome several of our barriers to scale. Traditional funding is often very risk averse and limits us to fee-for-service type contracts with very specific deliverables, with no financial margins to experiment or grow the team quickly. 

We are at a tipping point with our work. The Elevate Prize would allow us to continue to virtualize our methodology, pilot the training app we have planned and, despite COVID, continue to support cities and teams across Mexico and beyond. It would also help us reach areas of the country that do not generally qualify for bilateral funding support such as the state of Chiapas and make this a truly nationwide effort.

I am personally excited about the possibility of mentorship and coaching. I would really welcome advice and support on how to continue to scale our work and improve our funding model amongst other things. Feeling part of a larger network of innovators would also be a great boost after years of sometimes lonely struggle!

Lastly, we have been so focused on delivery in the last 3 years, we need to focus on spreading the message of our work.  Many people in Mexico (and internationally), including those leading and operating the justice system, do not believe that this system will ever be transparent and effective. We have the results to disprove this but we need to amplify hope beyond those directly impacted by the work to continue to grow the movement we have begun.